Extensive and wide-ranging online collection of useful documents. The archive ends in October 2016 when Network Myanmar closed. The main link here, however, contains some updates beyond the 2016 cut-off.

"The only likely outcome of the crisis is the near-permanent presence of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya along the Bangladesh border...The harrowing scenes of human suffering on the Myanmar–Bangladesh border have provoked outpourings of sympathy and some firm statements by international politicians. At least half a million people have been brutally expelled from their homes and are now living in miserable conditions in muddy refugee camps and storm-drenched shanty towns. As the international community debates how to respond, it needs to take a clear-eyed view of the situation and recognise a brutal truth: the refugees are almost certainly not going home.
Consequently, policymakers must not hide behind the fiction that Bangladesh is only temporarily hosting the refugees in preparation for their rapid return home. Over-optimistic assumptions now will lead to worse misery in the long term. Instead, the world needs to plan on the basis that Bangladesh will be hosting a very large and permanent refugee population..."

"Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority group, are fleeing persecution in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, fueling a historic migration crisis...Discriminatory policies of Myanmar’s government since the late 1970s have compelled hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya to flee their homes in the predominantly Buddhist country. Most have crossed by land into Bangladesh, while others have taken to the sea to reach Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Renewed violence, including reported rape, murder, and arson in 2017, triggered a massive exodus of Rohingya amid charges of ethnic cleansing against Myanmar’s security forces. Those forces claim to be carrying out a campaign to reinstate stability in the western region of Myanmar..."
Backgrounder by Eleanor Albert

Editor's Note:
"Despite calls from international rights groups for stronger action to stop the violence in Myanmar, there appears to be little appetite within the wider international community for more robust intervention, writes Lynn Kuok. Permitting the current crisis to unfold, however, eats away at its credibility and threatens peace and stability in Southeast Asia. This piece originally appeared in Foreign Affairs. "...Over the past month, 436,000 Rohingya have fled from their homes in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State to neighboring Bangladesh. This is the second exodus of Rohingya, members of a Muslim ethnic minority, in the past year. The current exodus, like the previous one in October 2016 that led
87,000 to flee, is being driven by a brutal government crackdown following attacks by armed Rohingya.
Despite calls from international rights groups for stronger action to stop the violence, there appears to be little appetite within the wider international community for more robust intervention. Permitting the current crisis to unfold, however, eats away at its credibility and threatens peace and stability in Southeast Asia.."

"Despite Myanmar’s recent transition to civilian leadership, the military has retained significant power and is most to blame for the sectarian violence against the Rohingya...State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has faced the brunt of international criticism for what has been described as ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, but Myanmar’s military, which has executed the crackdown in Rakhine State, is largely to blame, says Francis Wade, a journalist and author of Myanmar’s Enemy Within: Buddhist Violence and the Making of a Muslim ‘Other.’ The military still retains a great deal of political and economic power despite the country’s recent transition to a civilian-led government, explains Wade. Still, he says that in echoing the military’s rhetoric against the Muslim minority group, Aung San Suu Kyi and her civilian government have only fueled the sectarian violence..."

Abstract: "Migration is not the new thing in the world today. The first wave of the migration happe
ned as the
aftermath of the World War I and the World War II. The existent of the Rohingya in Myanmar is
considered as one of the results from British colonial rule. The Rohingyas are Muslims in Rakhine
State in Myanmar who claimed that they have been livi
ng in the area for generations. Literally, the
history of Muslims in Arakan could date back to the 15
th
century; however, the Muslims were
called Chiitagonian or Bengali until the term “Rohingya” came into use for the first time in 1951
by a Muslim intelle
ctual from Mayu Frontier Administration (MFA) in Rakhine State. The
Muslim and Buddhist Arakanese have never been in a good relation since the ancient time. A
remarkable crack of the relationship could be seen from the fight during the WWII. At that time,
Muslims served the British as Vonlunteer force while Buddhist Arakanese supported the Japanese.
They had no choice but fought each other which leaded to the later violence even after the war
ended.
The beginning of the establishment of new states, Myanmar
, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, allowed
Rohingya to choose where they belong. However, they chose nothing. They expected to have their
own territory from the British during the establishment process. Although the British did not give
them land, the Rohingya su
ccesfully lobbied U Nu, the first Prime Minister of Myanmar, that they
only wanted the MFA which covers Maungdaw, Buthidaung, and the western part of Rathedaung.
The MFA was still a part of the Union of Myanmar. Everything would fall into place if U Nu was
not revolted by the General Ne Win in 1962. He revoked all compromising policies toward ethnic
groups, the minority in Myanmar. Moreover, the Citizenship Law was enforced in 1982 to screen
out aliens according to the consideration of the Burmese governmen
t.
The relationship between Muslim and Buddhist Arakanese in Rakhine was completely broken in
2012 when a Buddhist women was raped and murdered by three Muslims. The incident had
become viral which led to the revenge by Buddhist Arakanese resulting in the
death of 10 Muslims.
Since then, the rights of the Rohingya has been violated and the discrimination in Rakhine State
has become more and more severe which led to the migration of the Rohingya to Thailand"

Author/creator:

Kulnataporn Theeraratstit

Language:

English

Source/publisher:

Department of International Environment and Development Studies, Norwegian University of Life Science